Story+1985-09-04+Pontiac,+MI

´´Hey...this is about falling through....falling through the safety net....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´Johnny 99´´**

´´We were....traveling down through Texas on the first part of our American tour....you´d see a lot of folks from up north, from Pittsburgh, from up here in Michigan....that´d gone down looking for work in the oil fields or in the oil refineries, when they got down there, the price of oil dropped, they were shutting ´em down....they were left with no work and no place to go, you´d see ´em in tents out on the side of the highway at night....or sleeping in their cars ....with the police just telling them to move on....this is called ´Seeds´....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´Seeds´´**

´´This is a song about blood money....here´s ´Atlantic City´....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´Atlantic City´´**

´´Thanks....so how you doing out there? (crowd cheers) been ok since we seen you last time? (crowd cheers) good....that´s good....oh....this is, uh....when I was growing up, my dad used to have this trick that he used to play on me....he used to lock up the frontdoor at night so I used to have to come in around the side....and I was about 17....I had real long hair, like, down to my shoulders (chuckles) oh....and he used to hate it, we used to argue about it all the time, so at night I´d stand in the driveway and....I´d tuck it down inside my collar as much as I could and I´d get up, get my nerve up and I´d get up on the porch, get through the screendoor and get through the kitchen, get through the livingroom, my mother´d be asleep with the tv on and just as I was about to get my foot on that bottom step, I´d think that I´d made it upstairs and I´d hear ´Bruuuce´ (chuckles)(crowd ´bruuces´) he´d, uh....he´d be calling me to come back and, and sit down and talk to him....except when I used to go back in the kitchen, we´d end up sitting there for ten minutes not saying anything to each other.... and finally the one question that he would always ask me would be ´Well, what do you think you´re doing with yourself?´....and uh....and the worst part about it was I could never explain it to him, you know (chuckles) it was, uh....it was hard to, I guess when you´re young, it´s hard to understand your parents´ lives....it´s hard to understand what he was going through ....but, uh, this is a song about living in the shadow of a dream....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´The River´´**

´´Yeah....this is a song for, uh, any of you quarreling lovers out there tonight....you know how when you first meet, everybody, first meet your new girlfriend or your new boyfriend, everything they say is fantastic and they look beautiful all the time and if you´re gonna go out to the movies, it´s like ´Oh, honey, what do you wanna see?´ ´Oh, honey, I don´t care, whether you wanna see´....making love all the time....´I don´t care if we go out tonight, sweetie, just as long as I´m with you´....yeah....then you come back about six months or a year later and what you get is, uh, ´Are we going out or do I have to sit around here and look at your face all night long?´....yeah....´Are you gonna make love to me tonight or do we have to wait for the full moon again?´ you know....why´s that happen?....anyway...it all ends up ....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´I´m Goin´ Down´´**

´´(after the singalong) You sound good, Detroit (crowd cheers) yeah....Pavarotti, look out out there!....man, I gotta take a little rest, though....oh yeah....I´m 35 now, man....gotta start resting then, you know, take a little breather, getting old....well, sometimes I lay in bed at night and....yeah, you see, I always sleep with my guitar....at first my wife didn´t like it but she got used to it....gotta take the whole package, you know what I mean? (chuckles) anyway....if you´re married, if you got any kids out there with you tonight, this is for you.... ´cause in the end, it ain´t nothing but glory days....are you ready, band?....are you ready, people? (crowd cheers)....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´Glory Days´´ **

´´Thanks....it don´t matter how old you get....you gotta keep....searching for that Promised Land....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´The Promised Land´´ **

´´Thanks, yeah....oh!....is it hot enough for you? (chuckles)(crowd cheers) thanks, I remember when I was....when I was growing up, I always kind of had a love-hate-relationship with the place that I was born.....and I always used to say to myself ´Man, I can´t wait till I get myself out of here´....and uh, and I was lucky in that I did, but I found out that when I got out....for some reason I´d always go back to where I was born and where I was raised....because, uh....that never leaves you, that´s always in your blood no matter where you go or what you become....I think when I was young, what I was afraid of was belonging to something ´cause if you admit that you belong to something, that means you got some responsibility to that place....like anyplace we go, anytime I mention the name of the town, people always cheer, we´ll try it out, alright....Detroit (crowd cheers) see, what´d I tell you?...that works everytime (chuckles) every place you go....and I was thinking about it and I guess that must mean that people are proud of where they come from.....and so if you´re proud of where you come from, it would make sense that you wanna do something to make it a fairer and a better place to live....and tonight in the audience we´ve got some representatives from....the Cleaners Community Foodbank of Detroit, from the (?) Soup Kitchen and from the Foodbank of Oakland County....and what a foodbank does is every year 20 percent of all the food that gets produced in the United States ends up getting wasted or thrown away, meanwhile in every city and in every state, there´s kids going to bed undernourished, there´s single mothers who can´t afford the right nutritional kinds of food for their children, there´s people that been hit hard by unemployment, old folks whose social security checks don´t get ´em through the month and all these people are not getting caught in any safety, safety net, they´re falling straight through to the bottom....and what a foodbank does is it gets that food that would normally be wasted and gets it out to the agencies that serve the people....yeah....and there´s folks here in Detroit doing that every day, like the (?) Soup Kitchen, they serve 3,500 meals every day....yeah....so what I´m trying to say is that these are the people that are out there making some of the ideas that I´m singing about tonight a reality in people´s lives every single day but they need your help and they need your support....yeah....and without, without them all I´m doing up here tonight is a bunch of words so you go out into the lobby during intermission, you´ll see the numbers of these three organizations out on the concession stands, if you´re interested, give ´em a call, find out what they´re all about, see what you can do to help them out, they need volunteers, they need fundraising and they´re here in Detroit trying to make it a fairer and more decent place to live for all of its citizens....so....so if you´re proud of your hometown, here´s a chance to do something about it, ok?....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´My Hometown´´ **

´´It´s all in a day´s work....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., after ´´Dancing in the Dark´´ **

´´Shout it out if you´re hungry inside! (crowd cheers) me too....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., after ´´Hungry Heart´´**

´´I always remember....my folks always working so hard....and I can remember my mom..... always going down to the finance man....to borrow money for Christmas....getting it paid back just in time to borrow money for Easter....getting it paid back just in time to borrow money for school....and going on and on and on....but for some reason....she never let on like it bothered her....but I can remember it bothered my dad....he´d sit in the kitchen thinking about everything that we wasn´t ever gonna have....till he´d get me thinking like that too.... and feeling angry....and laying up in bed....feeling like if something didn´t happen....that someday I was just gonna....like someday I´d just....like if something didn´t happen....I felt like someday I´d just....I was just gonna....gonna.....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´I´m on Fire´´**

´´Temptation!...do you know what I´m talking about ? (crowd cheers) good, because this is a song about....the conflict between worldly things and spiritual health....between desires of the flesh, and I´m talking about sexual desire.....and spiritual ecstasy....that´s right....now, where did all this conflict begin?....well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden....now I´d like to introduce to you one of the world´s leading biblical scholars to come out and help me explain this....Handsome Jim McDuffy, please come out here for a moment, thank you, Sir....now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia, somewhere in there....but the latest theological studies have found out that its actual location was....that´s right....ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike....that´s why they call it the Garden State back home.....but now listen, in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living....you couldn´t go home at night and put the little Pop-Tarts in the toaster and get the ham and cheese out of the icebox and jump in the sack with your baby and watch David Letterman....no, Sir!....you couldn´t go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one....no!....in the Garden of Eden there was no sin....there was no sex.....man lived in a state of innocence.... well, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I constantly live in.....oh, in the Garden of Eden there were many wonderous things: there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, got everybody in trouble....there was a man, Adam, there was a woman, Eve and she looked so fine....and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman.....and she had legs that were long and soft to the touch....and when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman.....and then she touched him....and it was the first time that a woman had ever touched a man.....and then he snuggled up real close to her and he said ´Oh, I love you, Evie´ and they went walking out into the green fields and then they lay down.....and when Adam....well, let´s just say it was the first time....but there was something else in the Garden of Eden on that day, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their sweet love into a betrayal and sent them driving down into the darkness below....but that´s alright because right here tonight on this backlot, for 9995 and no money down, don´t worry if you´ve got bad credit, it´s good here, we´ll finance, we´ll take a chance on you, if you´ve got the nerve to ride, I´ve got the keys to the first.....pink....Cadillac...´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´Pink Cadillac´´ **

´´Oh....oh, thanks, thank you....yeah, I´d like to just take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight, thank you very much....I wanna say that....oh....I´d like to, uh....do this song for you, this is, I guess, about the greatest song that´s ever been written about America....and uh, it was written by Woody Guthrie....and I guess what´s so great about it is it gets right to the heart of what the promise of our country was supposed to be about....and as we sit here tonight....it´s a promise that is eroding for many of our fellow citizens....I don´t think that if you talked....to some of the steelworkers from the Monongahela Valley or Gary, Indiana or East Los Angeles....or some of the farmers in the Midwest, some of the unemployment right here in Detroit, I don´t know if they believe that ....I don´t know if they think that this song is true any more....and I´m not sure that it is....but I know that it ought to be....and I know that no matter what anybody says, you can, you can make a difference in this song being a little more true every day....so....but you gotta try (chuckles)....anyway, I´d like to do this for you, wishing you all the longest life with the best of absolutely everything....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´This Land Is Your Land´´ **

´´Remember, in the end, nobody wins unless everybody wins....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´Born to Run´´**

´´Alright...on the piano, we got Roy Bittan....on the vocals, Miss Patti Scialfa....on the drums, the Mighty Max Weinberg....on the organ, Phantom Dan Federici....on the bass, Garry W.Tallent....on the guitar, Nils Lofgren....and the handsomest man in the history of western civilization...on the saxophone, Mokshagun, Big Man Clarence Clemons....hey, Big Man, are we a roadrunner or what? yeah!....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´Ramrod´´ **

´´Now what I wanna know is are you sweatting yet? (crowd cheers) then come on....´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´Twist and Shout´´**

´´Now, this is for anybody from Harrow, Ontario, Canada, friends of Bobby Drasner, if you´re out there, and in the end, we ain´t done this in a while but this is Detroit, isn´t it? (crowd cheers)...´´
 * 04.09.85 Pontiac, Mich., intro to ´´Detroit Medley´´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//